1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface-mount air-core coil mainly serving as an inductor for use at a high frequency, an electronic component having the air-core coil, and a communication apparatus having the air-core coil.
2. Description of the Related Art
A surface-mount air-core coil disclosed in the Japanese Examined Utility Model Publication No. 5-39611 has been known. As shown in FIG. 12 and FIG. 13, the air-core coil 80 has a coil body 82 formed by winding a conductive wire 81 spirally except for both ends thereof and mount legs 83 formed by folding both ends toward the inside at right angles. The coil body 82 has a circular shape and the lower surface 82a thereof is positioned on the same surface as the lower surfaces 83a of the mount legs 83. Therefore, the height H and the width L of the air-core coil 80 is equal to the outer diameter of the coil body 82. The horizontal length L.sub.1 of the mount legs 83 is shorter than the width L.
The air-core coil 80 is accommodated into each pocket 87 of a package tape 86 as shown in FIG. 14 and supplied to a mounting line. A withdrawing nozzle of a mounting machine (not shown) takes the air-core coil out of each pocket and mounts it at the specified position on a board 85.
When air-core coils having various characteristics, including inductance, are manufactured, the air-core coils have minutely different diameters in the coil bodies and the height H and the width L of each air-core coil become different. Since only one type of package tape 86 is prepared to reduce manufacturing cost, a small air-core coil may be handled inappropriately with the pocket 87 having fixed dimensions. In other words, if the coil is too small in height compared with the depth of the pocket 87, the coil may rotate in the pocket 87 and be turned upside down, preventing mounting even if it is taken out. If the coil is small in width compared with the width of the pocket 87, the coil may move in the pocket 87. It becomes difficult to remove the coil, and in addition, erroneous mounting may occur due to a change in position. This problem can be eliminated by providing a package tape having a pocket suited to the size of each type of air-core coil. However, this is an expensive solution.
As shown in FIG. 13, in the conventional air-core coil 80, the lower surface 82a of the coil body 82 is positioned ideally on the same plane as the lower surfaces 83a of the mount legs 83. Due to manufacturing errors, however, the lower surfaces 82a and 83a are usually not on the same plane. As shown in FIG. 15, for example, if the lower surface 82a is lower than the lower surfaces 83a, one or both of the mount legs 83 may be improperly soldered to the circuit board 85. Alternatively, one of the mount legs 83 may be soldered and the air-core coil stands on the board 85, which is a so-called tombstone phenomenon. It is inconvenient for the mount legs 83 to have a small length L.sub.1 when soldered.
Furthermore, since the coil body 82 has a circular cross section perpendicular to its axis as shown in FIG. 12, when the coil has a large inductance, it becomes large in diameter and the height H also becomes large.